Ram Setu issue rocks Rajya Sabha

The issue of Ram Setu rocked Rajya Sabha today with BJP asking the government to withdraw its affidavit given in court on plans to dismantle it, leading to acrimonious exchanges and consequent adjournment of the House.

The House witnessed uproarious scenes on the issue, with BJP and the government trading charges, accusing each other of playing politics and not having faith in God, as DMK and AIADMK members joined in.

As BJP and the treasury benches traded charges against each other, E M S Natchiappan, who was in the Chair, adjourned the House till 2 PM amid acrimonious scenes. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Prakash Javadekar (BJP) asked the government to withdraw its affidavit given in court on its decision to dismantle the structure and said they will not allow this to happen.He also asked the government to agree to recommendations of the Pachauri expert committee's suggestion for a different alignment without dismantling the Ram Setu structure, to which the government is not agreeing.

BJP members stood up after Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla accused the party of playing politics on the issue for votes and later trooped into the Well raising slogans for taking back the affidavit given by the Centre."Affidavit wapas lo, wapas lo," (Take back the affidavit), they chanted even as AIADMK and DMK also raised slogans leading to the adjournment of the House.

Javadekar accused government of not being concerned about public and religious sentiments as also of preserving ancient heritage and demanded withdrawal of the affidavit. He warned that an agitation would be launched if the government did not do so.

Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) joined him saying India cannot exist without Ram and Ram Setu and the issue was not just of India's heritage but also of public sentiment and demanded a response from the government.

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